COLLECTIVE BREATH – Week of Sunday, September 13th, 2020

Number of people attending Facebook (personal portion):

Number of people attending Zoom Meet (group portion):

Opening Poem: SIMPLY THE BEST

Introduction:

“So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn’t even budge.”

— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby

A transcript of this segment and each subsequent session will be posted (for anyone interested) at http://www.sidewayseight.co which is my main outlet for personal poetry and photography: Sideways Eight Projects.

Just this last Friday we acknowledged, marked, and honored the 19th anniversary of the September 11th attacks which left carnage and questions in three states and everyone’s minds. My generation’s Kennedy Assassination moment in which everyone I’ve talked to remembers where they were and what they were doing when they found out the horrific news. Rest In Peace. Never forget. Always faithful. Fast forward nearly two decades and our first responders are still grinding it out. Please keep them safe and sound.

Hello fantastic people! My name is Jesse James Ziegler. I am the current Poet in Residence for the Bruka Theatre of the Sierra in Reno, Nevada. I am an active poet, special event MC, principle photographer, special event series host, and weekly wellness writing workshop host in collaboration with Spoken Views Collective.

This Weeks Writing Prompt:

This week’s Prompt : respond to the question: What would you save first?

When I was a child in Grass Valley Cali, I remember my Dad saying “You get one bag.”

The 49er fire was bearing down in our area and we might have to evacuate at a moment’s notice. “It needs a good handle, and you need to be able to carry it yourself.” I remember wanting to put a few pictures that would have been impossible to replace, some of my most prized baseball cards, my journals, a few of my favorite volumes, and enough clothes to get by. COVID has us asking what is essential. Wildfires, Floods, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and social justice movements have us asking what and who to save. When disaster strikes, what would you save first? Each other? Pets, Legal Documents such as birth certificates and passports, Pictures, Fine Jewelry, sentimental gifts, survival gear, books, nothing?

That’s what we’ll be discussing on this week’s episode of Collective Breath: What would you save first?

I want for this podcast style personal portion to contain information about famous writers and their quotes as well as, futuristically speaking, local guests to this program who help everyone involved gain a diversity of perspective and positively impact our individual process.

Quote(s) of the Week:(7)

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

— J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you.”

— Natsuki Takaya

“It’s the children the world almost breaks who grow up to save it.”

— Frank Warren

“There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.”

— Banksy

“Some girls are full of heartache and poetry and those are the kind of girls who try to save wolves instead of running away from them.”

— Nikita Gill, Your Body is an Ocean: Love and Other Experiments

“When the last individual member of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”

— William Beebe

I’m hoping this sharing and vulnerability I’m demonstrating will encourage others who love creative writing as well to open up, by sharing from their innermost, related to the topic provided. I’m hoping we all gain perspective, compassion, hope, and discipline through such organized sharing.

Piece or Pieces of the Week: (3)

Laying in the Dust with Calamity

Beneath Faded Receipts

Nothing for the swim back

Next Week’s Writing Prompt:

Which will also be posted across Collective Breath and Bruka Theatre’s social media platforms: Respond to the singular word: Responsibility

Closing Sentiments and an Invitation

That’s it for my personal portion. If this is where you get off this train of thought, because you checked in to listen, thank you for tuning in and absorbing. I appreciate your time and consideration. If you are here for the Weekly Wellness Writing Workshop group portion via Zoom Meeting, please transition to that application now using the link provided in the ‘Collective Breath’ Bruka Theatre Facebook Event Page.

My Frictionless Benediction

Keep writing. Keep your heart open and your mind aware. Keep coming back for more. Keep going. Keep doing. Keep loving and creating. Keep each other safe and sound. Keep it real, and keep the faith. I love you. Goodbye for now.

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